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Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dedman College Research Earth Sciences Faculty News

Watch: SMU geophysics professor discusses earthquake

FOX 4 Originally Posted: September 4, 2016 A 5.6 magnitude earthquake hit Oklahoma Saturday morning, prompting officials to shut down dozens of waste water disposal wells within a 500-square-mile area of the quake’s epicenter. The earthquake tied the record for the strongest ever recorded in Oklahoma. The earthquake epicenter was about 9 miles northwest of Pawnee. One […]

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Chemistry Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dedman College Research Earth Sciences Faculty News Mathematics World Languages and Literatures

Six Dedman College faculty members recommended for tenure and promotion

Congratulations to the faculty members who are newly tenured or have been promoted to full professorships to begin the 2016-17 academic year. Recommended for tenure and promotion to Full Professor: Heather DeShon, Earth Sciences Scott Norris, Mathematics Rubén Sánchez-Godoy, World Languages and Literatures (Spanish) Hervé Tchumkam, World Languages and Literatures (French) Nicolay Tsarevsky, Chemistry Recommended for promotion to Full Professor: Matthew Hornbach, Earth Sciences For the full SMU faculty list READ […]

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Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dedman College Research Earth Sciences Faculty News

Scientists offer explanation on how oil and gas activity triggers North Texas earthquakes

Dallas Morning News Originally Posted: July 25, 2016 In a long-awaited study, researchers have offered a possible explanation for how oil and gas activity may have triggered earthquakes in Dallas and Irving last year. The disposal of wastewater from oil and gas production and hydraulic fracturing “plausibly” set off the tremors, which shook Dallas, Irving, […]

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Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dedman College Research Earth Sciences Faculty News Graduate News Institute for the Study of Earth and Man

Meet the Scientist, Paleontology

Originally Posted: June 29, 2016 SMU alumna, Katharina Marino, who used to prepare fossils in the Shuler labs and then worked as an educator at the Perot Museum, is now pursuing a Master’s degree in science communication at the University of Otago in New Zealand.  She has started a blog in which she interviews scientists. […]

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Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dedman College Research Earth Sciences Faculty News

New study by geophysicists Zhong Lu, professor, Shuler-Foscue Chair, and Jin-Woo Kim research scientist, Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, finds massive sinkholes are unstable

Science Daily Originally Posted: June 14, 2016 Geohazard: Giant sinkholes near West Texas oil patch towns are growing — as new ones lurk Satellite radar images reveal ground movement of infamous sinkholes near Wink, Texas; suggest 2 existing holes are expanding, and new ones are forming as nearby subsidence occurs at an alarming rate Two […]

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Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dedman College Research Earth Sciences Faculty News

Geohazard: Giant sinkholes near West Texas oil patch towns are growing — as new ones lurk

SMU Research Originally Posted: June 13, 2016 Residents of Wink and neighboring Kermit have grown accustomed to the two giant sinkholes that sit between their small West Texas towns. But now radar images taken of the sinkholes by an orbiting space satellite reveal big changes may be on the horizon. A new study by geophysicists […]

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Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dedman College Research Earth Sciences Faculty News Institute for the Study of Earth and Man

New research on Alamosaurus

Journal of Systematic Palaeontology Originally Posted: June 6, 2016 Ronald S. Tykoski and Anthony R. Fiorillo recently published new research titled, An articulated cervical series of Alamosaurus sanjuanensis Gilmore, 1922 (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from Texas: new perspective on the relationships of North America’s last giant sauropod. READ MORE  

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Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dedman College Research Earth Sciences Faculty News

Matthew Siegler, Earth Sciences, What If The Moon Were Bigger?

GeorgiaWorld Originally Posted: May 25, 2016 The questions kids ask about science aren’t always easy to answer. Sometimes, their little brains can lead to big places adults forget to explore. With that in mind, we’ve started a new series called Science Question From a Toddler, which will use kids’ curiosity as a jumping-off point to investigate the […]

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Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dedman College Research Earth Sciences Faculty News Institute for the Study of Earth and Man

Early armored dino from Texas lacked cousin’s club-tail weapon, but had a nose for danger

SMU Research Originally Posted: May 23, 2016 Pawpawsaurus’s hearing wasn’t keen, and it lacked the infamous tail club of Ankylosaurus. But first-ever CT scans of Pawpawsaurus’s skull indicate the dino’s saving grace from predators may have been an acute sense of smell. Well-known armored dinosaur Ankylosaurus is famous for a hard knobby layer of bone […]

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Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences Dedman College Research Earth Sciences Faculty News

SMU scientists co-authored study showing that humans have been causing earthquakes in Texas since the 1920s

SMU NEWS Originally Posted: May 17, 2016 Earthquakes triggered by human activity have been happening in Texas since at least 1925, and they have been widespread throughout the state ever since, according to a new historical review of the evidence published online May 18 in Seismological Research Letters. The earthquakes are caused by oil and […]